An AdWords Wishlist for Google Claus

Alas, the holidays are upon us. ‘Tis time to make merry, revel in cheer and spread joy across all the digital lands of yore. Let us reminisce of the improvements we’ve made to our pay-per-click accounts throughout the year and exalt the future optimizations that the new year will bring.

Now I have the cheesy Dickens-esque intro out of the way…

I’ve been a really, really, reeeaaalllyy good PPC analyst this year. So, I surely must have made the big guy’s “Nice” list. What better time to take a moment to compile my Google AdWords wishlist and e-mail it off to Santa [Clara]? What I really want this year is to spread the joy of PPC to the needy SEMs in the world.

The AdWords wishlist that I’m sending to Google Claus would simply ask for a short list of “improvements” I’d like to see from the Google AdWords platforms in the months ahead. Without further adieu…

More Chart Uniformity & Integrated Segmentation

Don’t get me wrong. I love Google AdWords charts. They make for quick and simple analysis and comparisons over time, but there are a few areas that I think Google Claus could improve the functionality of said charts. This is actually a two-parter:

Uniformity: Chart options vary depending on which tab you are on. You might not see the same options on the Keywords tab that you see on the Ads tab. Sometimes a column displayed in the report isn’t available as an option in the chart. Sometimes you might not have the option to view a chart at all. Take a look. You’ll see. I ask that there be a more consistent feel across the various available AdWords reports.

Segmentation: It would be incredibly useful to quickly see how performance changes between devices, geographic areas, ad position (top vs. other), or any other of the various Google AdWords dimensions worth analyzing. When a segment is selected, I would like to see the chart update along with the data table.

“But isn’t this all possible in Excel? ” you might ask.

Yes, it is. But exporting and merging countless spreadsheets in order to generate a simple graph can, at times, be time-consuming. The simple effectiveness of the Google AdWords charts is one of my favorite parts of the platform and having a more advanced implementation in place would take the UI to the next level. I simply ask that that Big Googly Elf improve and expand upon the current charts.

More Granular Geo-Targeting

Think about this one: what if you could geo-targeting specific campaign elements rather than create entirely new campaign to accomplish your desired feat.

Let’s say, for example, I want to serve a variety of ads to a multitude of geographic regions. Plus, each of these ads is to contain a very specific offer relevant only to the audience in said specific geographic region. Currently, I can only do this by creating duplicate campaigns then adjusting the geo-targeting settings therein.

What I propose is that the capability to geo-target individual ads and ad extensions to specific regions is created, therefore eliminating the need to build multiple “copy-cat” campaigns. This change would help streamline management of very complex accounts while still offering the desired amount of control over who is seeing your AdWords ads.

More Integration with Google Analytics

This is simply an analysis issue. I do just as much of my work in Google Analytics as I do in Google AdWords, if not more. It would be incredibly useful to actively integrate more and more GA functionality into the Google AdWords UI.

What if I could import more user metrics? What if I could filter keywords based on a regular expression? What if I could apply an advanced segment while viewing reports?

There’s a whole lot of “what ifs” in this regard. I can imagine a multitude of additional scenarios. In my opinion the more integrated that Google Analytics and Google Adwords become, the more useful and insightful the platforms will become.

My true wish is that the two platforms become one (but that isn’t happening any time in the foreseeable future).

Now, this is just a short wishlist. If I have some time before the big day maybe I’ll hit up the man in red (green, blue, and yellow) once again. After all, I don’t want to get too greedy and find myself on Google Claus’ “naughty” list. Then I’d never get the tools I oh-so crave.

What are some changes you’d like to see come to the Google Adwords platform in the months ahead? Leave a comment. Happy holidays.

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Stephen Kapusta is a Senior Account Manager specializing in search and display advertising. He is best at finding creative opportunities to reach the audience throughout the conversion funnel by matching content to intent and focusing on providing the right user experiences at the right time. His education experience in media and rhetoric helped mold this marketing approach.

Brandon

I want to see Google allow different desktop and mobile URLs in the same ad group. With the big push from Enhanced campaigns to combine desktop and mobile into single campaigns, this little detail is causing headaches in many of our accounts. It feels like I already got coal in my stocking.

Are you aware of what’s called “Mobile Preference Ads”? When you create an ad in the AdWords UI there is a small checkbox that appears after all of the ad text input boxes. You can check the “Mobile” box which specifies that a particular ad should appear on mobile devices. You could add your mobile-specific destination URL in this way.

The only catch here is that you are declaring your device preference. You will still need to continue running your desktop ads/URLs or else the mobile ads will begin to serve on desktop as well (which will cause a lot of confusion for your site visitors).

Give it a shot and let me know how it works out for you.

Happy holidays!

Dan Wilkerson

Hey Stephen,

Great blog, as always 🙂 this isn’t really for you, though. Someone needs to fix the code for the bulk campaign parameter tagger I made – I forgot to move any hashed stuff to the end of a URL. It should be simple enough – I’ll email you some code.